BJP MP Sudhanshu Trivedi on Wednesday welcomed the Calcutta High Court’s decision dismissing TMC’s plea seeking protection of “political data” in connection with the recent ED raid on the premises of the Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) and the Kolkata residence of its director Prateek Jain.
The Calcutta High Court today dismissed TMC’s plea as the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said “nothing was seized” from the I-PAC premises. The Court adjourned the matter till the disposal of the special leave petition by the Supreme Court.
The BJP leader strongly criticized West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, accusing her of allegedly obstructing the ED raid on January 8 and protecting a private company (I-PAC). In a scathing attack, Trivedi claimed that the “Constitution is in danger” in the India Bloc-ruled states. He also mocked the TMC for outsourcing strategic consultancy, saying the party leadership is “incompetent” in formulating strategy.
Sudhanshu Trivedi said, “The manner in which the West Bengal High Court has today rejected the claim of the Trinamool Congress has made it constitutionally clear that the claim of the Trinamool Congress was completely baseless from both a moral and constitutional point of view. However, this process also raises many political questions. This is the first time in the history of India that a political party has come forward to defend a private institution. If your claim is true then the entire strategy of your party is in line with that of a private institution. If it was passed, it means that the top leadership of Trinamool Congress believes that all its senior leaders and workers are incompetent and completely incapable of making a strategy.”
Furthermore, he claimed that TMC chief Mamata Banerjee does not trust the West Bengal Police or her party members, as she herself had reached the I-PAC office during the raid.
The BJP MP said, “The second thing is that even after this she felt that the organization had sensitive information, then Mamata ji did not even trust her own police. This means that the West Bengal government feels that its own police is not trustworthy. That is why Mamata ji herself went there. The third thing is that Mamata ji did not trust any of her personal employees to bring the files from there and went and brought the files herself. These actions are not only morally and politically wrong, but are also unconstitutional. “The public should understand very well that wherever the India Bloc and its constituent parties are in power, the Constitution is in danger.”
Meanwhile, TMC leader Kunal Ghosh hit out at the BJP, accusing the Center of “misusing” the ED after the investigating agency raided I-PAC in a 2021 case. He further said that Mamata Banerjee opposed the raid to “protect TMC’s information repository”.
The TMC leader said, “This is a long legal process. Our stand is the same that this case was registered in 2021, so did the ED sleep for so long? Now that there are elections in Bengal, they are conducting raids here. The BJP is misusing the ED. Our leader Mamata Banerjee had opposed it to protect our party’s information repository. If this was such an important investigation, then after five years of sleep, did the ED wake up just before the elections? The public is seeing everything. Has been.”
During the hearing of the case this morning, TMC told the High Court, “Our petition is limited only to the demand that our personal political data be protected. It is unfair to threaten a political party, especially when it has filed the petition believing that its data can be taken from its political advisor who has been working for six years.”
The ED said “nothing was seized” and sought dismissal of TMC’s plea. “Nothing has been seized. Whatever has been taken has been taken by Mamata Banerjee,” the ED said. The ED also told the court that the search operation “has nothing to do with the Trinamool Congress.”
The ED told the high court, “The raids had nothing to do with the Trinamool Congress, and the person whose house was raided by the ED has not appeared before you.” The probe agency further said, “The searches were conducted elsewhere, but another party is coming and saying that my data was with them. This approach is not right.”
The ED in its plea has accused the West Bengal Police of colluding with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, saying the police obstructed its officers, failed to discharge their public duty and seized material including physical documents and electronic devices described by the agency as “crucial evidence”. (
